by Katrina Cope
Silence filled the room while they pondered.
“Do you have anything that has stronger reception?” Eva asked Robert.
He shook his head in disappointment. “Only on the surrogate’s direct feed.”
Eva jumped onto the computer beside him, which she usually worked on. “You said that there were security cameras down there, right?” She looked at Jayden.
Jayden nodded. “Yeah. Every few meters, but mainly in the corridors.”
“I can try to hack into them, but I’m only an amateur at this. Sometimes, I’m lucky. Sometimes, I’m not. I guess you could say I’m a hack at being a hacker.” She laughed at her joke.
“That’s pretty funny for you, Eva.” Robert gave her a wry smile.
She stuck her tongue out at him and turned back to her work.
“That’s great thinking, Eva, but we’re going to need a clearer view into the actual labs, even if you do manage to get into the video feeds.” Jayden crossed his arms and placed a hand under his chin.
Professor Anna turned to Aaron. “What would be your chances of getting your group from the school down there?”
Initially, Aaron looked shocked, and his dark eyebrows knitted together. “You know, they’re a pretty smart and a curious group. Maybe I’ll be able to work on their curiosity to discover the lab.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Professor Anna smiled. “How’s the hacking going, Eva?”
“Almost there, I think. They have firewalls around their security system, but you would expect that.” She put a finger up in the air. “Wait!” After a small pause, she exclaimed, “Got it! We’re through.”
What appeared on the screen was as Jayden had explained. It was only footage of the corridors within the underground building. They did see the people in the lab, mostly students, walking from room to room. With this footage, they had the privilege of seeing what was in their hands, but they really needed to have footage of inside the labs.
“We definitely need those other students and your surrogate down there, Aaron.” Professor Anna squinted at the screen.
“I’ll work on it as soon as possible,” Aaron said.
~~~~~
JAYDEN WAS IN his room, digging around his cupboard, looking for his hat and shoes for his outdoor lesson with Charlie.
The screen next to him on the wall flicked on, and Scarlet’s face appeared. “I’m surprised you can find anything in there with all the mess from you kids.”
Jayden started. “Scarlet! You scared me. Could you at least give me some warning?”
“Nah. Where’s the fun in that?” She smirked. “How did it go with Avando?”
“Oh, come on, Scarlet. You already know the answer to that.”
“True, but I was just making conversation, and I thought it was nice to ask.” She raised an eyebrow in a challenge and looked smug.
“Yeah, you’re right, of course.” Jayden nodded. “Like you said, we should have told Avando straight away. I was a little surprised to find out that Avando was already keeping an eye on Dr. Ernest. Is that what you meant when you said Avando knows more than he was letting on?”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Scarlet said.
“Well, that’s helpful. Not!” Jayden shook his head at her uncooperative response. “What is Avando up to?”
“I wouldn’t say he is up to anything as such.” She sounded smug but seemed to have a change of heart. “Look, it wouldn’t be right if I told you what Avando is doing all the time. It would kind of be going against his privacy.” She sounded apologetic. “Would you like it if I told Avando and everyone else what you do all the time?”
“Well, no, but I don’t do anything worth dishing about.” He shrugged.
“Yeah. You are kind of a boring goody-two-shoes.” She chuckled.
“Hey, I’m not that bad!” Jayden looked offended.
“No, you’re not. But how would you like it if I told him that you were digging around, trying to find out what he knows and what he isn’t telling you?”
“Well, then that would be kind of awkward,” he said. “I don’t want him to think that I didn’t trust him or anything. He may get upset and not want me here.”
“Exactly.”
“Do you think Dr. Ernest is up to anything?”
“I don’t know. My only knowledge of that school is what I am provided with from you students going there and me having access to your feeds, either visual or audio. So really, I am no wiser than you and Avando combined, and even then I don’t completely know what Avando knows.”
“But don’t you see everything Avando does and sees while he’s at the Sanctum?”
“I do. But he is not always in the Sanctum. I don’t have access to every electronic device he uses, so I can’t keep an eye on everything he does with these devices outside of the Sanctum. Some things don’t make sense to me, either.”
“I would have thought that you knew everything, Scarlet. But I guess even your brilliance has its limitations.”
“I am not able to see everything outside, unless you have tracking devices attached to you or some sort of electronic communication device logged into my system. For example, when you played skirmish that time and disappeared off the radar, I didn’t know where you were. I couldn’t find you, and I couldn’t tell Avando where you were. You hid well.”
Jayden smirked as he remembered that time.
Scarlet saw the smile on his face and asked, “Where were you, by the way?”
“Do you really think I’ll tell you?”
“I thought that is what friends do, you know, tell each other their secrets.” Scarlet looked hurt.
“I haven’t told that to anyone yet, and you keep secrets from me. So why should I tell you? Besides, maybe I just don’t want to be found there. Maybe I need to hide there sometimes to keep away from everyone, you know, to get some me time.”
“Fine, then! Don’t tell me!” she said in a huff, and her face disappeared from the screen.
“Huh. I think I annoyed her,” Jayden said indifferently. “Females!” He shook his head and turned back to the cupboard to continue to look for a hat and shoes. He found them then headed off outside for his next class.
On the way, he stopped to use the bathroom. He placed his hand on the scanner. As he did this, a gush of water came out the wall and sprayed all over his face.
“This is not going to change my mind, Scarlet. I’m not going to tell you anything if I don’t want to.” He wiped the water off his face with a hand. “If anything, doing things like this makes me want to tell you even less.”
Scarlet’s mature face appeared on the screen in front of him. She looked at him, blew a big raspberry, and disappeared off the screen again.
“I see what you mean now. You’re not as mature as you look.”
- Chapter Eight -
The Plan
Liam, Hayley, and Dryden were hanging outside the admin office, sitting on a park bench right outside the back door. Ever since they’d seen the dark person sneaking from the building, they couldn’t resist sitting outside the building in their spare time. Whether it was in between classes or at the end of their day, they waited to see if they could catch the person there again. They were curious to sort out the puzzle of what was going on. It had been a few weeks since Dr. Ernest had acted peculiarly and the case of the mysterious person had begun.
Gemma, who had just finished her electric violin lessons, saw them sitting there. Curious, she made her way over to see them. “What are you guys doing?”
“Nothing much,” Liam said indifferently. “Why do you ask?”
“Well, I know this is a nerd school and all, but don’t you think hanging around the admin building is a little over the top even for this school?” she scoffed.
“Like you can talk!” Liam squinted. “That’s rich coming from someone who always practices everything all the time.”
“Not all the time,” she said. “Besides, even the naturally gifted have to work on their form. Li
ke you and your two left feet at Tae Kwon Do. If you practiced more, you’d be better at it.”
“Now there’s a slap in the face for you.” Hayley chuckled.
“Oh, shut up, Hayley. You two are just as bad as each other. Besides, she’s really saying that she’s not very good at all and has to practice all the time.”
Gemma patted Liam on the shoulder. “If that’s what helps you get through, you keep telling yourself that.” Her smile was mocking.
Liam rolled his eyes.
“Give up, Liam,” Dryden said. “You have two females against you. You’re never going to win.”
“Thanks for your vote of confidence, Dryden,” Liam snapped. He continued with sarcasm dripping from his lips, “Nice to see us guys sticking together.”
“So are you going to tell me why you’re hanging around here?” Gemma asked again.
“We can tell your sister, Liam, surely. It wouldn’t hurt to have another smart female helping, especially with you two numbskulls on my side,” Hayley said.
“What is this? Power to the females, is it?” Liam asked, his cheeks flushed with anger. “Goooo, girl power!” He punched his fist up in the air.
Gemma gave Liam a weird side-glance then turned back to Hayley. “Anyway, fill me in.”
“Well, a few weeks ago, Dr. Ernest was acting strange when we saw him come out of the chemistry lab. So after a science lesson, we went to find him. We had Brendan with us as well.”
“Who’s Brendan?” Gemma asked.
“Haven’t you met him yet?” Dryden was shocked.
“No. Should I have?” She looked puzzled.
“Really?” Dryden double-checked.
“That would be right.” Haley sat on the edge of her seat. When Gemma looked at her with a baffled expression, she continued, “Brendan usually hangs around with us a fair bit and has done it ever since we’ve been here. But he tends to disappear at times, and we never really know where he goes. Like, right now, he’s gone again.”
“Okay. I guess that’s why I haven’t met him yet. Did you end up finding Dr. Ernest?” she asked, changing the subject back to the initial conversation.
“Yeah, we did,” Dryden said.
“And?” Gemma encouraged as he sat silently.
Hayley rolled her eyes at Dryden. “When we did find him, he was running around, looking for someone.” She lowered her voice to a hushed whisper. “He looked kinda panicked, and we were curious what he was up to, so we offered to help. But it turns out, there was someone who didn’t belong to the school running around too.”
“Did you find them?” Gemma moved in closer.
“After a while,” Dryden said.
“And what happened then?”
“Well, we only saw him from a distance,” Hayley said. “He was sneaking out of the admin building, and he looked kinda suspicious too.”
“What did he look like?” Gemma asked.
“We were over at that building over there when we saw him, so we didn’t get a good look at his face. He was dark-skinned like Dr. Ernest, but with hair, because he was young. We saw him sneak to the edge of the building then down that side there. We ran to catch up, but by the time we got to the side of the building and ran through, he was gone.”
“What, just vanished?” Gemma’s eyes were wide.
“Yep. Gone. Just like that.” Dryden waved his hands to the side.
“You seriously couldn’t find him?” Gemma asked again.
“We didn’t have Your Excellency here to help us, did we?” Liam jeered at Gemma.
Gemma gazed at her brother for a brief moment. “Well, aren’t you lucky! Now, you do have my help.” She turned back to Hayley. “So I’m looking for a dark-skinned guy about our age who looks suspicious?”
Hayley and Dryden nodded.
“Okey-dokey. Will do. See ya.” She walked off.
“What is wrong with you, Liam?” Haley slapped his upper arm lightly with the back of her hand. “Every time Gemma comes near us, you go all weird and stuff. You were never like this at home. I thought you liked Gemma?”
“Yeah, Liam!” Dryden agreed. “You do go weird.”
“I know.” Liam’s shoulders slumped. “It’s just, Matt has his special thing with the skateboarding, and my special thing was supposed to be coming here to this school. Now, Gemma is getting older, and she’s turning out to be both Matt and me. She’s good at the practical and the intelligent things. It’s damn annoying!”
“I see where you’re coming from.” Dryden placed a hand on Liam’s shoulder. “But, unfortunately, you’re just going to have to get used to it, ’cause it looks like she’s just going to get better.”
“Gee, thanks for the encouragement.” Liam shrugged off Dryden’s hand and glared at him.
“You’re welcome.” Dryden grinned. He knew he hadn’t helped.
They waited by the building a little longer without a sign of the dark-skinned teen or Dr. Ernest, and their break was nearly over. They had almost given up and were talking among themselves.
“Hey, guys!”
Startled, they spun their heads around to see who was talking to them. It was Brendan.
“Where have you been?” Hayley gave him a scrutinizing glare.
“Jeez, Hayley. Can I never turn up to this group and not be asked that question by you?” Brendan gazed at her with a frown.
“Yeah. We keep saying that to her,” Liam said.
“Sure, that can be arranged, as soon as you stop disappearing suspiciously.” Hayley crossed her arms over her chest.
“If I was that suspicious, don’t you think it would be wiser to investigate what I do without me knowing?” Brendan said.
“Ha. Ha. Ha. You’ve been trumped!” Liam laughed, directing it at Hayley. “You’re not so smart after all, ’cause that would make more sense.” He wiped the smile from his face and turned to Brendan. “Where did you come from?”
“I came from inside the building.” Brendan indicated the admin building.
“What were you doing in there?” Hayley lifted an eyebrow and glared at him.
“I was doing a little investigating on my own.”
“You and this alone thing! When are you ever going to include us and stop sneaking around on your own?” Hayley snapped.
“There you go again. You can’t help yourself, can you, Hayley?” Brendan shook his head.
A slightly embarrassed look crossed Hayley’s face.
Brendan continued. “To be perfectly honest, to have all of us hovering inside the admin building would look rather suspicious. Besides, you guys were doing a pretty good job looking out for people outside going in and out of this building.”
“Did you manage to find anything?” Liam asked.
“I didn’t find anything definite, but I did find a couple of suspicious things.”
“Like what?” Dryden searched Brendan with his eyes as though looking for evidence.
“For starters, there was a locked door with no name on the front,” Brendan said.
“Is that it?” Haley looked disgusted.
“Well, I find that suspicious. At a place like a school, especially in the admin building, the doors are usually titled,” Brendan said.
“Sure, that’s brilliant, genius. You go off by yourself and investigate that locked door. Meanwhile, we’ll sit here and work together to find any suspicious people walking around.” Hayley turned her nose up at him, and her curly red hair blew around in the wind, making her head look bigger and her face more enraged.
“How’s that working for you?” Brendan looked at the others in the group.
“Pretty quiet so far,” Dryden said.
Brendan was knocked forward as someone barged past him on the path out of the building. He turned to see who it was and was surprised to see William. “Hi, William.”
He was still wearing his lab coat, which covered the clothes on his slightly overweight body, and his pale skin almost matched the color of the coat. His dark-brown hair w
as in disarray, and it appeared that he had been scratching it in intense thought. His face carried a look of distraction, as though his mind was a thousand miles away.
“Hi,” he said to be polite. William pushed his glasses back up to the top of the bridge of his nose and looked at him earnestly. “Do I know you?”
The other three students looked at him with questioning expressions. “Actually, probably not,” Brendan agreed, looking down, embarrassed at his mistake. It was then that he realized he only knew of William through Jayden and their spying on the school from the Sanctum. He thought quickly, searching for a reason for knowing him. He said, “I saw you once, walking around with Dr. Ernest, and I asked the student I was with at the time who you were. You looked important.” Brendan tried flattery.
From the puffed-up expression of pride in William’s face, it was evident that he was happy to accept that explanation. “Okay. What are your names?”
As they introduced themselves, Liam noticed a ladybeetle sitting on the collar of William’s lab coat. He found this odd, knowing that William had come from indoors. “Did you know that you have a ladybeetle on you?” Liam pointed at his collar.
“I do?” William searched around his shoulders.
“Yeah. It’s just here.” Liam reached out to where the ladybeetle was to see if he could get it to climb onto his hand. Cupping his hands around the ladybeetle, he waited for it to crawl on. He was excited to see his plan was coming into place, but as he pulled his hands away from William to show him the ladybeetle and to have a better look himself, the ladybeetle flew. “Dammit! I can never seem to get those things to stay on my hand long enough to have a good look.”
“Maybe next time, you’ll be lucky,” William said encouragingly. “Anyway, I’ll catch you around.” He left the younger students outside the building.
The four turned and watched him leave. When William was a little farther away, Liam thought he saw a little speck flying around him in a circle then landing on the older boy’s shoulder. It looked as though the ladybeetle was stalking him. He thought he must’ve been seeing things, so he rubbed his eyes and took another look. By that time, William was too far away to see clearly.
